... also encoded in an individual's DNA. While not discounting that genetic tendencies may exist, supporters of the nurture theory believe they ultimately don't matter - that our behavioural aspects originate only from the environmental factors of our upbringing. Studies on infant and child temperament have revealed the most crucial evidence for nurture theories.2 There many ways of explaining aggressive behaviour in humans. Some theories view aggression as an important part of our evolutionary heritage, others as an imbalance in hormones or neurotransmitters in the brain. Early psychological theories of aggression explained aggressive behaviour as an automatic consequence of personal frustration. Social learning theories see the cause of our aggressive behaviour as arising out of our interactions with others in our social world. Social psychologists claim that aggressive behaviour can be learnt through direct experience derived from Skinner's principles of operant reinforcement. In other words, if a child pushes another child and as a ...

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